Why You SUCK with Nurgle

Blake's Takes presents the definitive guide to Nurgle, and sound reasoning as to why you're terrible with the Poxmakers of Nurgle on the immortal empires campaign. This guide to Nurgle will help you get a good start in the immortal empires campaign mode.
If you're struggling with the campaign on very hard difficulty, you have come to the right place, this guide to will help you crawl out of the early game and spread your slimy wings into the late game.
==========================
Timestamps
00:00 - Introduction
01:24 - Reason 1 - You don’t prioritise targets correctly.
02:51 - Reason 2 - You level up Ku’gath wrong
04:36 - Reason 3 - You’re not Goading Ghorst
06:55 - Reason 4 - You don’t set up formations correctly
08:20 - Reason 5 - You don't play to Nurgle's strengths
10:12 - Reason 6 - You don't know how Nurgle makes money
12:10 - Reason 7 - You don't own the Champions of Chaos DLC

[@DH-zm4lh]

Enjoy "You SUCK" vids alot.. love your style and humor

[@BlakesTakes420]

Wow thank you so much. I am honestly blown away by your generosity. The next one is on its way, thank you for your support sir. ❤️

[@ishmaelthegreat1893]

As someone who adored playing Nurgle in the ROC map, I was so sad to find myself struggling so much with him in immortal empires. I’d all but written off Kugath as unusable until something changed but this lit a fire in me to play him again.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I love this comment, thank you for it. Let me know how your campaign goes!

[@ishmaelthegreat1893]

@@BlakesTakes420 2 days later but I have a response for ya! I am about 70 turns into the campaign and I've been having a blast so far. Cathay, surprisingly, haven't been particularly unhappy with me. I've mostly been slowly but surely battling my way through the mountains, having killed off Greasus and am now wiping out the last remnants of Grimgor while also holding off Imrik. Ghorst is dead, cathay seems content to let me be for the moment and I'm sort of becoming friends with the Chaos Dwarfs. Overall...I'm having a MUCH better time than any other campaign I've played with Kugath up until this point. Still struggling, still going slow and very much hurting on cash but I'm loving every second of it all the same.

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@ishmaelthegreat1893 amazing, glad you're having a better time with it.

[@TisTheWay]

​@@BlakesTakes420 I'm surprised you didn't mention the plague that debuff Helman's armies early game, they turn his armies into even worse trash

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@TisTheWay I prioritise getting to Nurgle's Rot as soon as possible. Zombies are already trash, I find spending the infections on them not worthwhile when you could be getting Nurgle's Rot, or settlement growth.

[@TheMoonlitFaerie]

Definitely agree, especially economically. Run negative, sack lots, value heroes. Nurgle's one of my favourite factions, unironically (sad this needs saying), and this is good stuff.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Steep learning curve on the early game. One of my faves too.

[@emanuelalfred1565]

Nurgle is definitely one of my favs as well

[@hammerofolympia3716]

@@emanuelalfred1565 Ku'gath is a beast and i love his campaign for the challenge, but then i love Khatep's campaign in 2

[@lukedemler4421]

There's a learning curve for nurgle lol? Maybe they nerfed it since I played, cuz even on VhVh I doomstacked nurglings and a couple soul grinders that's it

[@thatsnailisfast2523]

@@lukedemler4421 We’re all proud of you dear

[@ragedgrunt]

I hope nurgle faction gets a bit of a buff, he's got it very rough at the beginning and he doesn't get much stronger as he goes on, though they seem to be busy making the chaos dwarfs as overpowered as possible right now.

[@BlakesTakes420]

The early game is a slog for sure. Hopefully with some DLC they'll get the "skaven treatment".

[@artje90]

Actully it's fine with ku'gath for now. i do see issues for a nurgle if another LL that doesn't make the nurglings quite as strong cause nurglings of kugath are OP

[@ragedgrunt]

@@artje90 I never saw them as very strong even with kugath but maybe i'm doing it wrong, and if so that sucks because he's really your only option for nurgle and there are definitely some cool options in the roster i'd rather use.

[@galacta7300]

@@BlakesTakes420 Bro I'm convinced the Skaven are gonna stay the most cracked faction in the game lol. They just got too much going on lmao.

[@Jakster840]

​@@BlakesTakes420 Lads we gonna be eating good this winter when he gets an update.

[@albinlindkvist2052]

Great video, i will definetly make use of it in my 30th dwarf campaign

[@BlakesTakes420]

SHORT!

[@lorenzocassaro3054]

​@@BlakesTakes420 no alliance!

[@EveloGrave]

I love Nurgle in concept. I just feel the plagues need to do more. Clan Pestilens in WH2 felt amazing because the plagues actually did massive impact. The attrition changes in WH3 made both skaven plague and the Nurgle damage plague feel so worthless.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Definitely agree, the plagues feel a bit half-baked

[@airraid1266]

​@@BlakesTakes420but...half baked means bacteria, bacteria means sickness, sickness means disease and disease...means decay. So this is the most Nurgle thing imaginable.

[@kelianmengsk8473]

I played nurgle in realms of chaos when i first got Warhammer 3. And my experince with them was horrible. The campaign was a slog all the way through, but even though I managed to win that campaign, I never wanted to touch them again until they went through a rework. After watching this video, you inspired me to try them again in IE. I used your tips, I shit on Ghorst, conquered all of Cathay, and even went down south to slap Kairos back out of existence. I managed to get a long campaign victory, and I enjoyed it so much. I cannot overstate how much your tips helped me. This campaign was so much fun!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@fredblanchet6285]

I hope this series allows you to keep your channel growing, your videos are very well made (and you sound like somebody who reads out audiobooks for a living)

[@BlakesTakes420]

You're most kind, and I would love that job 😂

[@croquedead3926]

THANK YOU! Hopefully now we'll get slightly less misunderstanding on this faction. I also want to add to not underestimate Nurglings, especially crap stacks of them. They are very cost effective and you can spawn them anywhere you want in your territory. They make for some amazing emergency army to defend yourself with.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Agreed 100%. Cheap and they hold, While your heroes and Lords do the heavy lifting. You can level up your heroes and Lords with an army of good units (chosen, exalted plague bearers, soul grinders etc.) then once they're high enough level toss that lord into a nurglig crapstack. Rinse and repeat.

[@barryshropshire5142]

Thanks for this. Been wanting to do a Nurgle campaign for a while but could never get past that slog of an early game. Will definitely be putting your tips to use

[@BlakesTakes420]

Let me know how it goes!

[@coldestwinter3451]

Extremely well put together video. You managed to make nurgle seem almost worth trying. Can't wait to see more of these!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you for your kind words, more on its way ✅

[@davidzshen]

Good video! I've been messing around with Nurgle on higher difficulties, testing different unit compositions and plague strategies. It's a tough start, but once you can get going (and don't rely on autoresolve) you become absolutely unstoppable.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Sweet sweet snowballing phase giphy.com/explore/homer-drooling

[@reeceskinner2776]

Thank you so much. Nurgle is my fav faction, and I brute forced my way through everything in my previous play through, which involved a lot of dying, resetting, back tracking, gold I didn’t have and just overall tears. It was still fun at the end, but I had to do it on easy, and I want to go to normal difficulty for my next play through. This has been so helpful. Thank you

[@BlakesTakes420]

I am here to serve. Let me know how the new campaign goes Mr. Skinner.

[@paytonthornton1404]

Almost knew the last tip was coming when I used to play nurgle without the DLC and it would show my characters had unlocked the war shrine but couldn’t even use it haha😊

[@BlakesTakes420]

I lean so much on the DLC units, they almost feel like bread and butter at this point. I wouldn't want to play Nurgle without the DLC if I'm brutally honest.

[@therealhoodedmanofwinterfe5760]

GREAT video! Would definitely watch a series of this

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you for your comment. More coming soon. 📝

[@tar-dab]

thanks man, this is a really good video. like a lot of others in the comments i tried nurgle and just didn't get it. Looking forward to trying again applying your advice, i did indeed level kugath's spell line lol

[@BlakesTakes420]

My first ku gath campaign I did the same, so I hold my hands up to that lol! Pestilent decay is the big priority. Can solo low tier armies with that ability. Happy Pox-spreading!

[@570y3n]

Thank you SOOO much for these! I've always loved the Daemons of Chaos and they were practically UNPLAYABLE for me in this game! I managed to gring Gorst out once and just abandoned the campaign there feeling like it was already over. This looks great!

[@BlakesTakes420]

You're most welcome. I bid you good fortune in the wars to come.

[@puregibberish]

So the algorithm has deemed me worthy of blessing me with your video in my feed. I absolutely LOVE your content now - Thank you for putting information and humor into these!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Bless you and that sweet algorithm for finding me. We will both live long and happy lives together. V

[@MrGhostly12321]

This style of content is incredible, I sincerely hope you get around to doing all the factions eventually. I unironically think it would be really useful for new and advanced players alike. I vote for "why you suck with skaven" next

[@BlakesTakes420]

Katarina of the Ice court will be next. But the one after that has yet to be ratified.

[@demon3203]

This helps a lot and i wish there was more videos like this all the lords/factions. I tend to play all the factions generally the same and while this works most the time, some like nurgle kind of require you to play different or it doesn't work, but i also like seeing these things because encouraging me to play the game differently breathes life or nurgles case death back into the game and makes the campaigns more fun then just cookie cutter builds/playstyle that i use.

[@Koyu_Ruh]

The joke's on you, I can't suck with Nurgle if I don't play as Nurgle!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Koyu Ruh, I love you and made you a video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpeomKF5m92kbtU

[@WiIhelmScream]

This is the first video that i have seen from you and i have never touch Total War game but you really explain things clearly in a short time and i think your voice delivery was perfect. Good Vid 👌

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you so much, it's much appreciated.

[@nikitclaw4770]

So some tips and cheeses with Nurgle to provide full comfortable but also keep the challenge going: 1. If you recruit 3 additional lords early on, passing the plague between them (better if you pass in order like 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc.) you can absurdly boost the infection counts because game is really tough to receive this information from you for some reason. So in turn you can get from 14 to 31 or more spreads of infections, allowing you to unlock the juicy stuff with recipe plagues. 2. Although it's not as good to take Ogres early, you might have to because they usually declare war on you on sight and their armies are really annoying to deal with (not hard, but annoying), so taking them(Greasus primarily) gives you some mid provinces with much resources. Beware of Grimgor tho. Also taking his province allow you to meet caravans which are a good snack for your economy, especially if you have 4 lords in one place, primarily since the number of lords multiply the loot of caravan. 3.Be sure to either befriend Drazhoath to keep the west safe, or aggresively take him with Imrik out, because both of them are kind of pain in the arse to deal with. Especially Imrik, frick Imrik. 4.Number of infections post-battle options depends on how much you captured (1 to 1 iirc), so if there's much high number quantity of infantry, better to fight it manually and kill the units if they routed. Don't just outright kill them if you know you're gonna win. Especially with regenerating stuff like Ghorst zombies you can get 1000+ infections post battle. Be sure to do that in field battles, not settlements, as they don't count captures. 5. -40% armour may seem meh, but for autoresolve it's busted because of how highly it's rated there. So if you really don't want to fight pesky Vilitch army, harass with attrition, then pop palsy (-4 MA), - missile damage and -armor, send the plague cultist to Vilitch when he is damaged. Then with your stack pop the phys res recipe plague and wha-bam AR is on your side.

[@nikitclaw4770]

Also Ku'gath's stack vs Ghorst's stack in AR even on VH battle dif Ku'gath wins if you don't just spam Nurglings

[@BlakesTakes420]

All very sound advice. Yeah normally you'll have to go for a war of extermination with the ogres, which is unfortunate because their land sucks. Oh well, here I go exterminating again.

[@nikitclaw4770]

@@BlakesTakes420 Also a tip on the top is "renowned and feared" skill gives recruit rank factionwide. So 9 lords, even if they are disbanded provide lots of powerhouse to your armies

[@Dr.AvenVon]

NR 1. sounds like a bug

[@nikitclaw4770]

@@Dr.AvenVon kind of yea, but also the spread system is a bit wonky

[@ZZuluZ]

Didn’t feel like playing nurgle but I do now! Great video thank you! Subbed!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you, and enjoy the filth.

[@ivansmojic1285]

I subscribed and liked when you showed that ranged attack in "your leveling wrong". Awesome stuff.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you for your kind words

[@pawekozak6344]

Great vid, I'd recommend adding example army comps especially for tough stages such as nurgle early game

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you for your feedback, tbh with Nurgle early game, it's a case of Nurglings and plague bearers to distract the enemy whilst you punish them with your Lords and heroes. But I think an example early build would be a great addition.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Watermelon video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipOwkGuPqMqGbZo Thank you all for the support.

[@ShadowStudiosM]

Okay, this is insane quality for the amount of subs, you my friend are going places.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you for your kind words 🫶

[@ouchiegiverjr]

I expect all the factions on my desk soon! As in I’m saying I’m up to watch a entire series of you doing these!!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Yes me Lord, I am working hard on them me Lord. More coming very soon! :)

[@ouchiegiverjr]

@@BlakesTakes420 EXCELLENT! Together we shall make me not trash at this game!! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[@ouchiegiverjr]

In the real, give me a why I suck with the frenchies please, even abusing the enchantresses safe as hell early start area isn’t enough when I’m terrible with Calvary. Hope you make one on them soon =]

[@DarkArtistKaiser]

I appreciate videos like this. I am always willing to believe that the reason I do bad with a army is not cause its bad, but because I'm trash at it and likely don't understand HOW I'm suppose to play them.

[@BlakesTakes420]

You're not trash. Just ignorant. You are on the first step to enlightenment my friend. Together we will make this world pregnant with plague.

[@kafilkafish2152]

Helman Ghorst is by far the most annoying opponent to go up against in this campaign for me especially with how quickly they can get a full stack going, while you’re also fighting another faction simultaneously. Great guide btw.

[@BlakesTakes420]

He's a rough customer at the start. Thank you for your comment.

[@tentacleprty]

How can I not try it with such dulcet tones goading me into it. Subscribed!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you so much for your kind words. Let me know how the campaign goes.

[@francesco.virzi4]

Terrific tips, thanks!

[@BlakesTakes420]

You're very welcome!

[@pedrogrande0889]

This is a really good video. As someone who really enjoys play nurgle and using the plague mechanics, this video was and is a serious help. The video also helped me develop an early game strat to manage Ghorst and lizardmen being that after I take the Isles settlement, I recruit a lord and all nurglings for Ku’gath, march north and take that settlement then through the sea to take the lizard men capital. Following such, rush back to the northern settlement to then set an ambush. I always found that once the ambush was set, Ghorst was stuck in flayed rock with about a half stack at Skrap towers that dies without much of hitch, especially with a great deal of steam of corruption spam since Ghorst couldn’t heal fast enough to counteract such. Again thank you for the great video!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you for your kind words sir.

[@crayvun2196]

Bloody brilliant video!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you so much!

[@tidalview1]

thanks for this video. I love playing Nurgle, but as you say I suck with them. Will try these new ideas out. Thanks again!

[@BlakesTakes420]

You're very welcome. Let me know how you get on!

[@AlexanderTheGoodEnough]

I rush for 35% replenishment and vanguard deployment plague and build each town for cranking out soulgrinders (about 7 or 8). good point about minor settlements too, you only need a t3 for a town that gives soulgrinders and minor settlements work just fine.

[@BlakesTakes420]

The vanguard plague is also a top tier addition. Good point I should have mentioned it.

[@mattybear1608]

Would love for you to cover some other factions, such a great video!

[@BlakesTakes420]

You're very kind, and there will indeed be more, stay tuned. 📺

[@selnathmurkshaw5336]

I've watched my friend in coop do well with Nurgle, meanwhile I can't stand even the first 10 turns. Your notes give me some context on how I need to think when playing that actually makes me want to try the faction out again - No small feat!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you for your kind words. Let me know how the campaign goes and enjoy the decay.

[@rogergraf1634]

100% Agree. The Way your said it, i did it a while ago and had a full Map covered in green and Plagues.

[@BlakesTakes420]

This world is pregnant with plagues

[@PoppaFrost]

Loved the video, instant subscribe, keep it up i'll definitely mention you to all my friends, none of whom have any interest in Total War or Warhammer, so make of that what you will.

[@Piper0185]

Hope you continue this series with all the factions. Beastmen, lizardmen etc. Love it full of info. Earned a sub.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I intend to - thank you for subbing and welcome aboard!

[@Piper0185]

@@BlakesTakes420 Is the plan based on races, or based on Legendary Lord? ex. Skaven as a whole, or Ikit Claw, then Throt etc etc.

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@Piper0185 Legendary Lords, different start positions make the game wildly vary in terms of difficulty.

[@Piper0185]

@@BlakesTakes420 Woot. Look forward to more videos in the future. Very knowledgable. Just starting TWW3, your Tzeetch video was helpful. Slannesh was weird, she ignored me and killed Oxyotl xD lol

[@emre9704]

Love these.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Love u. 🫶

[@hurrrdurr]

From the golden streets of Cathay to the slums of Nurgle was a rough transition for my first rts game. Still haven't completed a campaign run on Ku'Gath. I'm on turn 50 slogging through the orc ravines like you said not to. Many restarts to get to this point. I will utilise the sacking strat as I've been occupying all settlements which would explain being broke 24/7. Thanks for the tips, you should make more faction guides like this 👍

[@hurrrdurr]

Edit: the only campaigns run I've completed are the epilogue and the chaos lords quest one.

[@BlakesTakes420]

You're most welcome and best of luck with it.

[@TheRadude]

A lot of the points you made, I've been doing with Ku'Gath and really enjoying his campaign. He does have a hard start though.

[@BlakesTakes420]

People say he's bad, he's just very different. Misunderstood if you will.

[@TheRadude]

@@BlakesTakes420 Exactly

[@Hyrath]

I like taking the capital before the settlement with the lizards to the north, if you put your backup lord just out to sea they will usually try to attack that and you can retreat just out of range. After that you can easily take out their half stack with your near full stack.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Haven't tried putting the lord out to sea. But fair enough if it works. On the harder diffuculties I know the second lizard fight can yield a lot of casualties, leaving you vulnerable to Ghorst's early aggression. That's why I take them out early.

[@Hyrath]

@@BlakesTakes420 Thankfully they made it easier in one of the more recent patches. The lizardman faction leader used to start on a carno on top everything else.

[@adriansanchez1996]

Nice video and narration.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you so much for your kind words. Much appreciated.

[@adamhadamcik385]

excellent guide. Funny thing is that I did Nurgle campaign two weeks ago and I did exactly the same thing as you said in this video without knowing it :D Something went wrong however because I was doing great killed Ghorst and Greasus but Imrik got too strong and Cathay minor faction both declared war on me and I got surrounded from both sides while being very poor and could barely afford 2 armies I gave up on the campaign.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you! The war on two fronts happened to me too, and can be hard to manage. Tip for that is you have to be comfortable having basically half a stack of nurglings to reduce costs. With a Nurgle army you need to lean on your heroes and basically a couple of powerful units (soul grinders, chosen, chaos knights) to do the heavy lifting. Most of the units in the army are a distraction wall. Nothing more.

[@ericb7291]

Such a good guide! Subscribing in the hope we get similar ones on other factions! I loved how you focused on faction strengths and weaknesses as well as common pitfalls and good strategies instead of giving a 40 turn recipe.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you so much, I tried to get a good balance of guide the player, don't play the game for them remotely. Thanks for the sub and comment, they're much appreciated. 🫶

[@ericb7291]

@@BlakesTakes420 people learn best from their mistakes, but it’s sometimes best to learn from other people’s mistakes. Here you show why a thing is a mistake (example leveling Kugath spellcasting) and how to act in order to not make the mistake. It’s really efficient for long term learning. I don’t listen to these guides 5 minutes before starting a new campaign. A 10 turn recipe would not stick, but general guidelines and principles do. Great work!

[@Grombrindal91]

If you must fight ghorst make sure to get as many exalted heroes on horseback, with maxed damage leveling as you can. Keep these hidden, once the enemy has engaged bring them out and snipe ghorst, he typically cant out heal their dps.

[@Untouchables1234]

Bunching up units was a really great tip, i beat a VC army three times larger!

[@BlakesTakes420]

Optimises healing and protects your troops it's a must with your Nurgle team.

[@codyraugh6599]

Lol Ghost and the tech tree have been my two banes since it's felt like he's always delayed me for far too long, thanks for this alt way to deal with him. Idk why I didn't think of the few small things, but I just always got it backwards on who sieges and who doesn't.

[@Meentanker]

will there be an update to this vifeo after the release of nexts week's Thrones of Decay DLC? I love Nurgle and Kugath and I suck at playing as nurgle

[@Th3_Raven]

Seeing this makes me want to try out Ku'Gath in Immortal Empires. I still hope that Thrones of Decay throws a revision into Ku'Gath to put the Nurgling Faction buffs into his lord effects and make his faction effects into buffs on plagues, purely because offshoot lords being incentivized to also use a lot of Nurglings doesn't quite sit right for me. Especially since Ku'Gath's schtick is trying to make the best plagues, and making his faction's plagues better than the upcoming ToD Nurgle Lord's would be nice, else he get the Skrolk treatment.

[@BlakesTakes420]

You should play them, they're fun!

[@Gitsy18]

Love your content. Its a bit unfortunate Nurgle need the DLC somewhat but is it viable to use them without while still following your guide?

[@BlakesTakes420]

Yeah they're still viable. It's considerably harder without daemon prince's and chosen though. Nurgle warshrine for plague cultist is a big hit too.

[@Gitsy18]

Thank you for getting back so quick Blake. That is reassuring. I plan to begin TW3 soon'ish and quite keen on both Nurgle or Khorne, so it is reassuring Nurgle is viable without DLC. Again, love your content and can't wait to see your Slaanesh video!

[@Manwithfood]

Excellent video as always! Good points made throughout. Maybe now the only thing I’ll suck with is Slaanesh 😐

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you my good man, glad to be of service ❤️

[@72skci72]

What kind of sucking with slaanesh???

[@Spino138lolp]

Good video! Subbed.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you!

[@SSJThead]

I agree with all but the last one because I spend my money horribly and thus have the DLC, thanks for the vid I learned alot about how to improve as Nurgle.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I too am weak with money. Next video is "Why you SUCK with money" and it's just a video of me buying broken stuff.

[@snowfyre920]

This video is incredibly helpful. May make me revisit nurgle ME again if I get the chaos dlc. Sadly I had the misfortune of playing nurgle ME in ME beta... having to drag through every single minor settlement battle as nurgle. While I did eventually get rid of ghorst with ambushes, the ogres would rapidly declare war on you (not sure why as i thought ogres were unhygenic by lore). Later Imrik would also declare war and cathayian factions resulting in a 3v1. The turning point for me was vassalizing some skaven (clan Treecherik. They get trashed by Ghorst and Greasus early so are easy to vassalize) and defending them till they got to tier 3 where I used ratling guns and plague claws to finally turn the tide... But by that point I gave up cause it felt more like my army was 4 skaven units carrying a bunch of nurgle units rather than being an actual nurgle army... as your actual damage dealing units are locked behind that infuriating merry-go-round system. At least I now do know how critical the DLC is for nurgle to perform.

[@BlakesTakes420]

It's a slog without the DLC for sure, but is still doable, but I'd really miss chaos warriors and chosen. Plus their daemon prince is so much better than the exalted GUO, it really should be revisited. Thanks for the comment!

[@snowfyre920]

@@BlakesTakes420 So I finally tried revisitng nurgle with the DLC and with advice from here. Levelling up Kugath to get the mortis engine effect early as you recommended instead of going spellcaster does make the mid game a lot easier especially if you blob nurglings. The DLC hero/lord do pull their weight a lot as does the warshrine. Now ended spreading the nurgle all over cathay. but the biggest thing that made the second playthrough so much easier was the lack of minor settlement battles. Though have to say the marauders don't really fit the blob well, they tend to run away from the blob and nurglings seem to preform better due to the phys resist. Only thing I wish I knew beforehand was that when you turn your chaos sorcerer into a nurgle daemon prince his spell choices are new instead of inheriting his previous spells like the case with the exalted Great unclean one. So I was temporarily left without blight boil on that army while I tried to get a nurgle spellbook plagueridden to level up enough.

[@elessar4864]

Pure poetry of a video

[@Tuck213]

The exalted hero of Nurgle has such a badass model

[@BlakesTakes420]

I love the Nurgle aesthetic.

[@taumil3239]

I found that chaos spawn outperform warriors in every way for a similar price, nowadays I only build rancid aloe for spawn and soulgrinders, and then garden of blight if I got some spare cash. Cav is also kinda useless, soulgrinders are just better at performing the cav role lol

[@BlakesTakes420]

I find spawn are good infantry smashers, but quite fragile. The warriors are better for holding, which is playing to Nurgle's strengths I find. Chaos knights (without the lances) are really good I find, soul grinders are good in a pinch but don't have the staying power the knights have.

[@morflingi6558]

Nurgle is my fav faction lore wise so I'm hyped for thrones of decay. Great vid I'm leaving sub for more.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Mine too! Thank you for subscribing.

[@rafaeljoseph3951]

Also don’t forget to use your channel winds army stance as often as you can since the lore of nurgle has such high winds of magic costs

[@TheRewasder97]

I recommend to those of you that tried Nurgle when IE just to find it a horrible campaign. Ghorst has been fixed, both in his healing cap and that he doesn't start with the Mortis Engine. Also VC in general resurrect less units after the battle. You also have access to the strong units of the chaos champions dlc, which are mandatory. I also recommend the loreful nurgle mod, which gives nurgle units a bit of healing and a slight Mortis Engine effect. Turns nurgle from laughable to scary without being op, you just now have to know what you're dealing with. There's also a SFO version.

[@MultiMoe11]

Thank you kind friend of Grandfather I struggled with Nurgle and especially my boy Kugath but this should help I have one question though if your playing as Kugath can you still ascend your Sorcerers I thought that was a Festus only thing?If not I feel like I need to slap myself repeatedly as well as slap myself for not seeing your points sooner as your correct in everything I have been playing this all wrong.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Yep, chaos sorcerers of Nurgle can ascend to daemonhood playing as Ku'Gath. Simply get them to level 15. They have a lot more utility, I find, than exalted Great Unclean Ones, which is unfortunate because I love the GUO model.

[@Cardinalsqr]

Nurgle is fun, I just think overall some buffs are needed. Especially with how the recruiting system works, it’s harder to just spam the few solid units the faction has. Some more damage on melee units and some more ranged power that isn’t just Ku’gath’s artillery attack or just magic spam would be nice. More artillery units like Ku’gath would be really nice and really fun. Stronger debuffs and have them more accessible in battle through unit effects or character abilities would also be really good.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I agree I like the faction, but his daemons feel terrible early.

[@s0ck06438]

Played a Festus campaign a few months back, was very challenging but I had the most fun I've had in awhile in TW

[@BlakesTakes420]

Great to hear, I think the warriors of Chaos are in an excellent space right now

[@MrSneaksful]

Did you spawn a second Lord on your first or second turn? Also you were speaking of getting his "yellow" skills going but your mouse was pointing on his campaign tree, which has a few points already spent in it, so which is first? The campaign tree or the yellow tree?

[@BlakesTakes420]

Yessir. And yeah focus yellow skills for Pestilent decay, then blue skills.

[@MrSneaksful]

@@BlakesTakes420 Thank you very much, also, I want to apologize, I see now where you talk about getting that Lord and subsequent army, my bad. Thank you for the great videos. Helped me so much, now I can actually enjoy Warhammer 3 instead of ...... sucking at it.

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@MrSneaksful I've got you boo.

[@michaelpetrovich5353]

I had to restart several times but the trick is for me was to take out Ghorst as quickly as possible and then go after the iron Dragon and take out Cathey.

[@BlakesTakes420]

He has a tricky start for sure. I found taking an extra lord really helps you power through, whilst levelling the second lord up to be competent enough to help whist you don't have access to good units. Thanks for your comment.

[@michaelpetrovich5353]

@@BlakesTakes420i want to add that i made the comments before watching your excellent video. I am glad that at least have 2 of your reasons locked down. 😁

[@Kaiser282]

Noob question: what about nurglings? I feel like my first attempt at Nurgle also crashed and burned because I was neglecting my infrastructure buildings and nurgling bonuses. My second go around I stacked bonuses to get me more and cheaper nurglings and I swear the green tide was jealous with how many units I threw at zombie man. Plus the infrastructure buildings help you get to your heroes faster and spread the plague so I'm wondering if you ignore the buildings and Nurglings or just assumed everyone was building them since that's what good players do (unlike my noob mistakes)

[@BlakesTakes420]

So, your infrastructure buildings SHOULD ONLY be built in territories you're certain you can defend. when you capture new territory, sack it for money and leave it's broken, busted land alone whilst you sack some more. You need only one set of the buildings and natural resources to boost the numbers for heroes. Nurglings are nothing more than a worse version of plague bearers (who are also really bad.) they are a distraction wall for the enemy to beat up whilst your actual units do damage. They're cheap which is good in the early game, but by turn 50 I've normally subbed them all out for exalted plague bearers, chaos warriors, and chosen. The only way you'll succeed in a Nurgle campaign is to accept the fact that you will be running on a substantial deficit and you'll be sacking 1 or 2 settlements a turn in the late game to compensate for that deficit. Embrace the decay of your finances. only then will you be free to serve the Urfather.

[@hamzaasif8136]

Thanks alot for this. Please make a tzeentch guide as well.

[@BlakesTakes420]

You're very welcome, and stay tuned 😉

[@TheBenirons]

one thing id like to mention is that the blue line capstone skill gives +1 recruit rank to every nurgle unit GLOBALLY, even if the lord is not active on the map ignoring the caster line is a very crucial point, for this reason i just went with death lords as they only need 2 points into leech and 1 into passive to be a master caster yes, heroes, heroes heroes.... i had like 9 plagueridden in my kugath stack (no DLCS at the time) and once they took flight i got a massive powerspike, sieges became a joke

[@BlakesTakes420]

Spot on. The only good spells in death are the passive and leech. I focus blue line then yellow line with my exalted GUOs.

[@stanboyd1]

Blobbing works, but another good way to handle battles is to use exalted plaguebearers, with a row of nurglings in front of them, because nurglings are small, the plaguebearers can use their ranged attack still while the nurglings hold the enemies at bay, and if some of the nurglings die, oh well, they are just nurglings and can be easily replaced.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I often use this as well against slower enemies like the dwarves because they'll have a hard time flanking. But most enemies have far more mobility so I use the "wall" method where I basically merge the units.

[@edwardwestmoreland-caunter6128]

Don't know if anyone else has this problem, but usually, whenever I siege an occupied settlement, the occupier just attacks back immediately. With both the garrison and occupying force, unless my army has considerable heft to it, I usually have to break siege that same turn cycle

[@BlakesTakes420]

They can only attack back on their turn, they'll obviously Sally out if they think there's a chance of winning

[@RebelCannonClub74]

My understanding with Kugath (and Lokhir Fellhart) is that you're supposed to escape your starting position and act as a pseudo horde army. With (WH2) Lokhir I head north to his actual capital, build a powerbase in the relative safety there, then come back down to reclaim my colony in Lustria. (I do the same thing in WH3, but I make the colony more permanent from the start) With Kugath I bee line directly for Cathay, and try to ally with Eshin and Lokhir. The starting armies for Cathay are much easier to deal with than ogres or zombos. If I feel particularly bold (or bored) I take over the elven enclave isles to the south, then go to antartica and try to infect Araby, then upwards from there.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I've never tried that, but it seems very fun!

[@RebelCannonClub74]

@@BlakesTakes420 Its actually quite hard, I did sack for an economy, but mostly recruited from regiments of reknown. It wasn't until I was in Cathay and was officially "good" neighbors with the scurvy elves and kung-flu rats did I start to really build. As a fail safe, I could always sell them land and "bless" them with infection without too many penalties. But otherwise my goal was to expand from the channel to the great wall, then swing back around to the original colony. I tried to avoid the north because it was pointless, orks are too strong against nurgle because its hard to outnumber them IMO. I just reconquered my old colony, then take skip over to the horn of Africa ignoring the lizardmen and trying to get to Araby. Araby is the perfect launching point for conquering Lustria and Europe.

[@berdenjoyer9485]

Thank Grandfather for this guide. I shall spread his virulent love to all. Btw, that “This is prioritizing your targets… There is no honor in Kugath Plaguedaddy” gave me Sun Tzu vibes

[@BlakesTakes420]

I am truly honoured. Your words are my psychopomp, and have touched me. All glory to the Urfather.

[@JonnyNepo]

best guide ever

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you! 🫶

[@madMILL3R]

I've been a big nurgle enjoyer for a while and was curious if you could give your take on something I never noticed people doing that kindof seemed intuitive in the midgame. Essentially it involves syncing up your 4 stage resource buildings and using commandments to quickly cycle through the "cheap" stages and skip to the profitable ones to sit on. It would seem it might still just be better to get plagues and sack but do you see any merit in this. The only downside is that the timing on this can be tricky in some areas as you want to sync up pretty much every building to at least be either on the same stage or no more than 1 stage apart. It seems like you would have to micromanage a bit and kindof expect how much money you would need many turns in advance and also use the commandments sometimes to get a building built at a convenient time. I hope I explained this well because although it makes sense to me in theory, it seems a bit difficult to get perfect in a practical sense.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Due to the cyclical nature of their infrastructure you'll never know how much you'll be making as its impossible to keep track of where the buildings are in the cycle without substantial manual effort. Your buildings are also so expensive that it will take many many turns to see a return on investment. Your best bet is to build a few buildings when you have a large surplus, but mainly focus on sacking your enemies cities for your revenue stream.

[@Nirual86]

Really still struggle to understand the whole cyclical building aspect. Like I've noticed that the building costs actually fluctuate, which could be pretty important for planning when to upgrade. I'm also still quite unsure when the techs, commandments etc that shorten the cycle time are actually useful for most of the buildings. For economic purposes, if seems like it doesn't really matter since you get shorter cycles when they make the most money anyway. I guess it keeps the balance more even but its not like every building will be at the same stage across every province anyway. For unit production, I guess its helpful since the units are added at the start of each cycle. But the big military chains don't seem to be affected by any bonuses, so you'll still need a bunch of them and wait a long time to get any big hitters added to the summoning pool. Meanwhile I have an endless supply of nurglings which I have at times just thrown en masse at a sudden threat and then disbanded the survivors because with Kugath they are very cheap to spam, come in with more health thanks to the Pigbarter Landmark building but still have too much upkeep to keep them around most of the time.

[@BlakesTakes420]

You make your money from sacking settlements. Your buildings are expensive and give a poor ROI. You will often be in negative favour. You have to be aggressive otherwise economic ruin will befall you. Sack settlements for money, your settlements are very unproductive and the money varies wildly due to their cyclical nature. As Nurgle you should not be reliant on your settlements for money, you should be sacking settlements and spreading grandfather's love.

[@Nirual86]

@@BlakesTakes420 yeah I got that, but I still feel like there is a bit more to the building stuff. Or at least, there is supposed to be,

[@lollol995]

this is the best total war warhammer guide channel !.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Very kind of you to say so 🫶

[@lollol995]

​@@BlakesTakes420 Man, I just say the fact .this is the best guide I've come across after watching many other Warhammer 3 guide videos. This type of series video you've made is definitely the best

[@EurrikkeEdward]

I've also noticed my kugath only has 110 missile damage and you have 545 on yours. Is that a skill somewhere that I need to take?

[@BlakesTakes420]

So base kugath has way more than 110 missile damage Base Missile Damage: 45 (45 per volley) Armour-Piercing Missile Damage: 105 (105 per volley) Explosive Damage: 45 Explosive Armour-Piercing Damage: 60 Get the Necrotic missiles quest battle available at rank 10 which multiplies his damage. It's a hard fight with the dwarves but it's worth doing as early as possible because you get other benefits like 10% more post battle loot

[@martinmullender-taeter5163]

thanks for the tips ... but i just couldnt concentrate for like 80% of the video so i had to watch it again ... well i was thinking about if its actually appropriate to eat while watching this

[@BlakesTakes420]

Haha thanks for the comment

[@LMarti13]

I believe you that all of these strategies would work well, it's just that most of them are a reaction to really bad design decisions.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thanks for your comment, I actually really enjoy Nurgle, his early game is tough but rewarding.

[@curtisthornsberry4236]

Havent tried ol’goo-gath since pre immortal empires. Played anout 5 turns and said “no thanks”. Will have to try him now that Chaos dwarfs are nearby his start zone.

[@BlakesTakes420]

The Chaos dwarves are a firm ally. Wishing you all the best on your gooey adventure.

[@rixx9285]

Great video

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you.

[@misguided6958]

I think I need a bit more help with the ghorst section. The tips are great and all, except when i kill his entire army, half of it survives because teehee vampire counts, and then he uses raise dead to complete the 20 stack i just fought and now have to fight again but severely weakened. I'd fight him on the field, but ghorst's regen makes that almost worse than beating him in auto-resolve. Maybe I am just getting unlucky and he's attacking me turn7 and that's not the norm, but man I am in desperate need of a turn-by-turn guide for taking out ghorst

[@BlakesTakes420]

So there's a bit of RNG to this but if you ambush stance and wait till Ghorst is in a settlement then you can attack and wipe them out in one battle.

[@valeriouscatastros8717]

I love this man's voice.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you my friend.

[@UninstallingWindows]

I'm currently at my first playthrough with nurgle and i think i'm approaching turn 80 or 90 and i still cant get more than 6000 favor collected. When i saw the price tags for the nurgle buildings i thought it must be a bug :D . At current pace, it seems im gona have to go through the entire game with tier 1 and 2 units :D

[@JackbatMurphy]

For some reason Nurgle is the the only faction I can play. I like the defensive playstyle. I'd love a vid on how to play the ogres better.

[@maesde]

Dammit. I feel like I "know" most of what you mentioned, yet I have issues playing with the sack only economy. I rely too much on the base economy and it leaves me hanging without enough money to actually do things. I have a VH campaign ongoing where I took out Ogres, but I have now to fight both elves to the west and darkl elves to the east and I just dont have the cash for more armies.

[@BlakesTakes420]

I allied with lokhir on this playthrough. It's wise to do so because Nurgle really benefits from other factions better units

[@AutorPL]

I really liked Nurgle in immortal empires tbh. Made one of the strongest doomstacks ever that made short work even of the dwarves.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Agreed. Nurgle late game is pretty unstoppable.

[@timothymurphy7669]

Great video. I fully intend to link it to everyone that complains about Kugath. An idea for another video is "Why Vlad keeps killing you". Where you can share the various tactics of how to take out vlad for struggling players

[@BlakesTakes420]

I really like this idea, thank you for your kind words.

[@EurrikkeEdward]

its like this vid was made for me. First thing I realised playing Nurgle after so long and first time in IE is that I really needed a full tank of winds of magic. And #7 might uh... take awhile for me to fix xD

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thank you for your kind words. Yeah coc dlc is steep, but does make Nurgle a lot better to play.

[@kmanalpha453]

5:54 sounds good, but even when i play factions designed to ambush i will still be found out somehow

[@sipofsunscorchedsarsaparil6052]

I just don't play as Nurgle for one very simple reason. I don't find Plague concocting and spreading a very engaging mechanic, same goes with creating cults and whatnot. It doesn't matter how good they are. The battle side of Nurgle worked fine once I realized you're supposed to play as fat Vampire Counts - always blob, always heal, no retreat, no surrender. Still, there's something terribly dissatisfying with the roster and my guess is, it is their lack of good monstrous units like Plague Ogres, Blight Trolls or some Nurglish giant with high resistances. As far as the other info in this video - fair, it's a good summary. Generally speaking mage lords tend to suffer early on because red and blue line skills are better than investing into magic, and Ku'gath could be an exception. Luckily Ghorst as the AI and Ghorst as the player are two completely different beasts and beating him is not all that hard at all. He lacks most forms of offensive spellcasting and pound for pound your Plaguebearers should be able to annihilate his zombie armies before he can reach the coveted factionwide buffs (which the AI still cannot utilize). In my latest Ghorst multiplayer campaign I am on about 20 heroic victories across four zombie armies and my co-op partner took up arts and crafts in the downtime where I am deathballing the enemy armies to death in battle. As I said, good video, although the audio is still a bit below what I'd consider optimal. You know the problem with Ku'gath? He's extremely tedious to play, so people don't want to put in the effort and for good reason. I knew most of this stuff but I know my own limitations so despite being the most interested in Ku'gath out of all the monogod factions I never really played through a campaign. It's sad, really.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Thanks for the comment - Yeah I agree, once there's more dlc out I'm sure nurgle will feel a lot better to play. his strategies are very one - dimensional. What was wrong with the audio?

[@sipofsunscorchedsarsaparil6052]

@@BlakesTakes420 It feels significantly more quiet than anything I listen to.

[@BlakesTakes420]

@@sipofsunscorchedsarsaparil6052 noted, thank you for the feedback

[@Willdroyd]

@@BlakesTakes420 Its a lot more quiet but it doesn't feel deliberate. It feels as though a soothing whisper but also like you are trying to talk normally, so my ears have a hard time adjusting to hearing lower voice and higher voice and just kinda get stuck

[@nuclear_caliber-we3pc]

I've been adding the comment the last few days because CA revealed a roadmap to Warhammer III. Nurgle is being fixed later in the year. Nurgle is the only faction I struggle to get a foothold in Immortal Empires. I once was able to get a good foothold but didn't understand I needed to attack the Haunted Forest. I didn't even notice it there. Now I can't even get off the island.

[@BlakesTakes420]

Ambush stance is your best friend. Apply it liberally with a goading army to lure them over to you.

[@galacta7300]

I'm bookmarking this video to watch later, gotta sleep, but goddamn your voice can whisper to me while I sleep,

[@BlakesTakes420]

Happy to be of service 🫶

[@Dextro-mi8qm]

Nice video, you're the first person that's played TW: WH3 and doesn't hate nurgle o mark it as an incomplete faction, that i've seen in the community.

[@albertlofling7310]

parsonally I would say that your economy isnt based around sacking but to get going you should. your buildings are expensive in basic military costing 5k, however once you get your starting province going you make bank of passive income

[@BlakesTakes420]

I disagree - your starting settlement won't cover the cost of multiple armies.

[@albertlofling7310]

​@@BlakesTakes420 if you use the plague that lets military buildings cycle faster then that means that 1 building gives you 4250 over the course of 19 turns, the starting port gives 800 a turn at lv 3 and the two resource buildings in first province makes this 30% better. so that is 1k a turn for that port alone, all other cities has one normal port each giving 400x2 and 650. on the ports alot we are making 2470 gold per turn. add multiple military buildings as your keen to do given how recruiting works and how much money they make. With the aforementioned plague with the infrastructure building that lowers the military building cycle by either 1 or 2 (level dependant) you are going through multiple buildings really quickly over the turns. so you can easily make an average of 5k per turn in just the starting province and so once you get ghorsts province to the same you are getting and average income of roughly 9 to 10k, if a midgame and non doomstack army is around 3 to 4k then you have 2 armies fully supported on the first two alone ignoring any other settlements you may have gotten in the meantime of building this up due to the sacking gold. ofc it takes time to get this built up but that is where the sacking comes in as getting these buildings built is the big cost